People don't want hand-outs. They want to keep their jobs and want to keep working. Giving out LOANS (not "Free money") to keep these companies going - especially at a time of severe economic distress - is the only answer.

Everyone is so short-sighted these days it's scary
... building cars has historically been a very profitable business.

Because GM and Chrysler's management have screwed things up for quite some time now does not negate that fact. If need be, replace each and every executive at these companies and start from there, but simply letting them go under is not the way to go. And bankruptcy is not the answer either because that would force every one of their suppliers (who are already hurting quite bad) to go under too, along with hundreds of thousands of jobs... domino effect.